Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Evening!
Last week we had a tumultuous return visit to beautiful Salo by
Italy’s Lake Garda. This week I want you to imagine we’ve been
back home for a while, and been sampling all those lovely grappas we
were able to bring home. There’s four of them in all. Here’s what
I thought.

Franzosi’s
Grappa di Rebo

The
small cork on this modern-style bottle reveals a bizarre insert that
does a great job of regulating the pour. It doesn’t restrict it in
any way. The label is transparent with the name written sideways in
red.

It
is savoury in its mightily impressive nose and on the tongue, and not
really sweet at all, but actually very good. There was definitely a
benefit to using my new grappa glasses here. The wine glass I tried
on opening at our friends Phil and Laura’s didn’t do it justice.
Phil and Laura love Italy almost as much as we do, though this was
their first experience of its special spirit. Laura seemed
interested, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d been left with
an impression of weird vodka.

Overall
the Rebo didn’t quite live up to the taste we had at the showroom.
It may be that it is better chilled, but I never chill my grappa, and
don’t really want to start doing that.

Il
Roccolo Quatra

I’m
not sure if this one really is called “Quatra”, as the writing on
the label is somewhat ambiguous. It’ll have to do though. It’s a
refined little bottle with smart shoulders and a slight taper,
adorned at the top with a ribbon and a large, tight stopper. The
label is low maintenance and respectful.

Much
sweeter than the Rebo, I’ve found the Quatra to be very enjoyable
and easy drinking. I really feel that extra 5% alcohol does it a lot
of favours as it generates intoxicating fumes and a more intense
sweetness.

It’s
a no-nonsense grappa that ticks all the boxes and gets the job done.

Il
Turina Invecchiata

Presented
in a low-key but classic bottle with what I’m going to call a
wedding stationery label, this expression is a model of
understatement. It features the same bottle insert as the Rebo, and
is 45% ABV. I determined quite quickly that it lacked a certain
sweetness that I was hoping for. It was enjoyable enough, but quickly
found itself sliding down the pecking order and being the grappa that
I would drink most frequently because I wanted to make the Quatra
last. And also I opened this…

Grappa
di Leali MonteAcuto

It
turns out that this immaculately packaged delight is the jewel in the
crown. If you visit here fairly regularly you might already be aware
that I was so impressed with this that I made it one of my three
spirits of the year. It is full-bodied, sweet and complex, and well
worth that trip off the beaten track, into the back roads of the
region.

And
so ends our Italian love affair for another year. It’s well worth
discovering and pursuing the delights of grappa, but even if it isn’t
up your street, and wine is more your thing, a week or two exploring
the various regions of Italy, visiting cantinas and wineries, makes
for a relaxing and engaging experience.

That’s
it for now then. I’ll be back next week, talking about something
else. See you then.

Thursday, 26 January 2017

Just
over a year and a half ago Mrs Cake and I took our booze tourism
adventures to Lake Garda in northern Italy (which you can read about
here),
and last year we decided to go back – because we were offered a
discount to stay in the same apartment. Actually, not just for that
reason; also because it was really good.

So
we landed at Milan’s Bergamo airport at around 5pm (UK time) on the
Wednesday afternoon. We had already chosen to remain in UK time for
the purpose of keeping our little girl on her regular schedule of
naps and meals. There were certainly no problems there, but this
would lead to one or two difficulties and errors along the way that
we’ll get to later.

I
picked up a couple of take-out beers at an airport outlet (Ceres
Strong Ale, 7.7%, 3 out of 5) for when we got back to the apartment.

After
picking up the rental car (which always takes ages because queuing is
an under-utilised concept in Italy) we had an hour’s drive to the
accommodation, by which time it would be 7pm and getting on for
little Sylvie’s bed time. We decided Mrs Cake would take care of
bed time activities while I drove down the mountain to the Italmark
supermarket for supplies (water, wine, beer, bananas – that last
item for little Sylvie’s breakfast) and the nearby pizza bar for
takeaway.

Both
were closed, but I wasn’t about to give up. Otherwise it would be
bed with no tea, and in the morning no breakfast and no water for the
little girl to drink. You can probably drink the tap water in Italy
these days, but not knowing that for sure, it was time to be the
provider. I started to drive toward Salo, figuring there would have
to be something open, and after one or two dead ends I found a
hotel-restaurant-pizzeria and returned home with two pizzas, a bottle
of house white wine and a big bottle of water. Result.

Triumph
over adversity is a beautiful feeling.

The
next day the people back home would be voting on whether we would
remain part of the European Union. Mrs Cake and I had already voted
by post, and were hoping for a victory for remain. While all that
went on we got on with things. First on the agenda, after getting our
little girl up and fed, was a trip to the supermarket to get food for
the week, overstock on cold drinks, and get some preliminary booze.

Let’s
start then, by looking at some beer selections from the local
supermarket.

Peroni
varieties

Peroni
Nastro Azzurro is a very popular beer here in the UK. It seems to be
the lager that is acceptable for drinking when you’re having a meal
out. I first came across some of the other varieties of Peroni when
we went to Tuscany,
but I have noticed one or two of them since on the shelves at local
supermarkets. Nevertheless, there are still more varieties available
in Italy than there are in the UK.

I
picked up the following:

Gran
Riserva Puro Malto (5.2%),
or pure
malt,
and I scored it a mere 3 out of 5.

special Peroni?

Gran
Riserva Rossa (5.2%),
or red
pure malt.
I was looking forward to this one. I, for some reason, thought it
might have been aged in burgundy casks or something, and would be
quite special. It doesn’t appear that anything of the sort is the
case. I scored it a very
disappointing
2 out of 5.

Gran
Riserva Doppio Malto (6.6%),
or double
malt.
I have seen this one in UK supermarkets, and would say it’s worth a
punt at that nicely elevated ABV. With this one I finally started to
deliberately score quarter points on Untappd,
awarding it 3.25 out of 5.

For
those distinctbeerenthusiasts
who are thinking of visiting Italy, other varieties you can look out
for are Peroni
Gluten (gluten-free),
Chill
Lemon (a
Radler), and Forte
which is an impressive 8%. I didn’t see any of those on my travels,
but rather on the Peroni
website when I got home to do some research for this post.

Moretti
varieties

Also
available in the local supermarket were a selection of similarly
packaged Morettis, representing various regions. I consider Moretti
to be a decent quality lager, so I thought I’d get these because
they’d also be decent additions to my distinct beers total. The
ones I found were:

Lucana
(5.8%),
an amber ale with a scent of laurel (?) and a slight flavour of
eucalyptus and mint (?!). Not things I’d normally be looking for in
a beer… I thought it tasted gingery, but that could be my
uncultured palate failing to identify eucalyptus. 2 out of 5.

Toscana
(5.5%),
a dark honey lager with “a chestnut aroma and scents of dry erbs
and pine”, according to the website.
I had no comment for this, but scored it 3 out of 5.

regional Moretti

Friulana
(5.9%), a light yellow lager that tastes of apples. It really does.
Fuck knows who wants their beer to taste of apples. I scored it 2.5
out of 5.

Piemontese
(5.5%),
an amber lager that is supposed to taste of blueberries. I wasn’t
able to detect that, and scored it 3 out of 5.

Pugliese (5.6%0, an amber beer, that I actually wrote that I hadn't been able to find. I certainly hadn' logged it. Nevertheless, now that I come to post this, I find a picture, proving that I did find it.

I
wasn’t able to get the Pugliese
or
Siciliana
varieties
but, as the ones I did try all seemed to be the same lager with an
external influence of one kind or another – and as I didn’t enjoy
them all that much – I think it’s safe to assume that I didn’t
miss out on too much. Anyway, as we’ll find out shortly, there were
other beers to be concerned with.

Nardini

The
next job was to pick out a bottle of grappa to drink during the week.
It was a mammoth task as, as you can see from the photo, there was a
veritable butt-load to choose from. And they were all well within the
limit of my budget.

a selection of supermarket grappas

I
went for the Nardini
because
I’d heard of it, it was a full 70cl, and it contained a cosy 50
ABVs. You’d be looking at around £37 plus P&P in the UK, while
mine was around 15 euros. That was a large factor in my decision –
the fact that I was already interested in trying it, and that I knew
I wouldn’t want to buy it at home – why not buy it here, where
it’s cheap?

Nardini - and a view

There
was a bit of confusion in that the label states “Aquavite”,
so I wasn’t sure whether this actually was grappa (once I got it
back to the apartment). I looked for it on various websites and alls
I could find was an identical bottle that said “grappa” on the
label. Finally, I have to conclude that they are the same since fact
of the matter is that aquavite
is
merely a synoynym of distillate.
So grappa is
an
aquavite of grape pomace. It’s not for certain, but it’s the best
I can ascertain from the information available.

As
far as the drinking is concerned, it tastes like grappa, the extra
alcohol gives the spirit a nice, full body and an extra, not
un-welcome sweetness. I tried it straight at first, and figured at
50% a bit of water would be in order, but over the course of a couple
of evenings I realised I’d been preferring it straight, so that was
how I proceeded and then finished it.

What
with everything else I drank during our stay (mostly during the
evening when the day’s driving was definitely done) 70cl was almost
a struggle to get through. One glass was nudged off the corner of a
table (and smashed) by Mrs Cake, but nevertheless, I had to drink
four large glasses on the last evening of our stay. By this stage,
Brexit had cast a gloomy shadow over everything, but the cheap cigar
I picked up at the bottom of the hill made everything better –
until the next day when we’d have to find out how much Mrs Cake
nearly driving us off a cliff would cost us with the rental company,
and what returning to a politically divided UK would bring.

Nardini
– this bottle at least – is far from the best example of grappa
I’ve enjoyed so far. It is perhaps a little too rugged, too
utilitarian. I suspect some Italians might tell you that’s how
grappa should be, but I’ve been coming across some beautiful,
refined examples in the last few years (as you’ll know if you read
this blog), and I prefer those.

Wine
Tour Part One

phone notes

In
my pre-trip research I’d laid the foundations for some potential
grappa tours – one such being an excursion to some distilleries in
the Brescia region, to the west of our location, and the other being
to the east, in the Vicenza area. These are easily accessible from
the region around the southern end of Garda – as indeed is the
Trento region, as we’d found out last time – but with our little
girl still a month shy of a year old, we ultimately decided to err on
the side of caution when it came to road trips. So instead of
embarking on journeys that would take an hour or more (in the outward
direction), we decided to keep our focus within 15 to 30 minutes of
our home. Our host’s website showed that there was a world of wine within our grasp and, as had
been the case in Tuscany,
a lot of these vineyards, wineries and cantinas also produced their
own grappas.

For
the most part, they are open to the public from Monday to Saturday
from 8.30 until 12, and then from 2 until 6 (give or take half an
hour, depending on individual preferences). On this first outing we
tried to arrive at our first target for afternoon opening. This
should allow us to visit two or three places, then get back to the
apartment in time for little Sylvie’s afternoon nap.

Now,
we couldn’t find every cantina that was on our list of
possibilities, but I had some backups (hastily prepared using the
wi-fi at the apartment), so here’s what we got.

Monteacutodi Leali Antonio - Just a few minutes out of Salo, on the SS572 that
skirts around the south western end of Garda, the satnav instructs
you to turn right onto a country lane that leads by vineyards and to
the tiny settlement of Puegagno del Garda. I park next to the fields,
turning the car around in the expectation that we’ll be heading
back to the main road after this.

I
go to do a little recce, to make sure we aren’t getting the baby
out of her car seat for no good reason, and find a sign directing me
into a little courtyard. There’s no one obviously around, but it is
just after lunch, so I go back and get Mrs Cake to come exploring
with me.

After
a minute or two, and with the help of a dog, I get the attention of a
lady who comes down to help. She’s friendly and welcoming and
doesn’t speak a word of English, but she’s happy to show us her
showroom and let us sample some products. As with most Italians, she
loves to see little Sylvie.

After
a couple of purchases (Mrs Cake selects some pink fizz – Turmalino
at 8 euros – and I some artfully packaged grappa, white in a dark
glass bottle for 13 euros for 50cl), we head out encouraged, into the
heat and back to the car for round 2.

At the Franzosi showroom

Cantina Franzosi – It soon turns out that turning the car around was a
waste of effort because our next destination is behind us and only
just up the road. I briefly consider walking because the satnav
suggests it’s not far, and it seems easier than putting the baby
back in the car seat. I don’t act on that, and it turns out that
it’s a bit further than I thought – not very, but far enough to
drive.

In
contrast to Monteacuto, Franzosi is a larger, more industrial
operation. I’m thinking that still makes it seem bigger than it is,
but it is a more modern building with a car park, a warehouse and a
forklift truck. At the back is a large and well-stocked showroom with
many varieties of wine and grappa (one particularly fancy looking 3
year old at 43 euros for 50cl) as well as oils and vinegars.

By
now little Sylvie is starting to get a little antsy, so I walk her
around the building a little, trying not to bother the employees and
keep her away from things she maybe shouldn’t be touching. She
isn’t wearing shoes and the floor of the warehouse quickly turns
her little feet black.

Meanwhile
in the showroom Mrs Cake is being plied by the friendly host with
four generous glasses of various wine varieties. Every now and then I
hoist up little Sylvie and return her to this starting point before
she gets herself in trouble. A couple of varieties of grappa are
presented also, and we both select Rebo
for
our purchases – partly on the recommendation of our host. I could
afford, and even be open to buying the 3 year old but as I’m
already aware that grappa doesn’t tend to survive ageing more than
2 years all that well, I think it’s telling that it isn’t
recommended to me. I also decide to pick up four new grappa glasses.
I forget how much Mrs Cake’s wine cost, but my grappa was 14.50 for
70cl.

IlRoccolo – we fail to find the next cantina on our list, so we abort
that one and instead come to il
Roccolo in
Polpenazze del Garda. Once again we are greeted warmly and treated to
fresh wine samples, grappa samples and even finger foods for the
baby. Mrs Cake selects a bottle of red for herself and a bargain
white for our neighbour who is looking after Ruby the cat while we’re
away. I also plump for another grappa, making it three for three.
We’re already most of the way to achieving our take home target of
four bottles each (and one for the neighbour).

Now,
this is a place we went to last year to pick up one of each of their
various beers. It’s a short drive from where we were staying, and
indeed, close to many of the cantinas we visited during our stay.
There was no one else there the first time we went, so we just picked
up a box of 8 or 9 beers and went on our merry way. This time –
after an occasion where we tried to go before they’d opened – we
figured we might be able to get an early evening dinner while we
picked up our beers.

It
was probably about 17.30 when we got there this time, and it was
thriving. We were sat outside with an Italian couple who were
interested to know about the Brexit thing (though there was a great
language barrier, so we talked a little bit about football instead),
where we could listen to the rock n’ roll soundtrack and see a
procession of people call in either for their own dinners or to pick
up a box of beers.

In
terms of food, they’ve gone for a kind of American roadhouse type
menu – burgers, wings and that, so it probably doesn’t provide
the authentic Italian dining experience that many tourists would be
looking for, but it was decent enough food.

And
the beer…

The
branding has been changed somewhat; shifting from a simple but
classic look with plain labels and a small follow
the bear style
emblem to stark black and electric, ZX
Spectrum-type
colours with a simple image representative of a snarling bear. I
prefer the old style, but Mrs Cake saw the merits of the new one.

Luppulula,
5.2% –
this one hadn’t been available last time, and it was the one I
chose to drink on draught with my meal (it wasn’t available in a
bottle). It’s classed as a pilsner, but it’s very light in body
and in colour. 3/5

Fiordalisa,
4.8% -
this is a wheat bear, which is usually a favourite genre of mine.
That is reflected in the score, and that, at this point I’d given
up relying on the fridge to get my beers cold, and had started
sticking them in the freezer for 40 minutes prior to opening. 4/5

La
Bionda, 5.2% -
a Helles
style
lager, I scored this quite low. I must have been a little
disappointed. 2.75/5

La
Rocca, 6.8%
- a Belgian
Tripel
that comes in one of those oversized bottles, topped with a cork. 4/5

Cucunera,
7% -
a good strong bock,
and a favourite of the range for me. 4.5/5

Weizen,
5.2% -
a Hefeweizen and, again, a very good one. 4.5/5

Hop
‘n’ Roll, 4.7% -
a pale ale, another favourite. 4.5/5

Rebuffone,
6.7% -
also presented in an oversized bottle, this Belgian
Dubbel
didn’t quite reach the heights of the last three, but still; 4/5.

Wine
tour part 2

You
may not believe it, but a good smattering of months has passed since
I last wrote anything on this post. I don’t know what happened, but
suddenly I just couldn’t be bothered to write it anymore. Luckily,
that’s all over with now and I feel like I can proceed again,
though I have to warn you, my memory has faded somewhat and I might
not be able to recall all the details. At least that means it won’t
take as long to write – or read – right?

So
anyway, our second wine tour was a chance to mop up some of the
cantinas that were either a little too out of the way, or that we
didn’t have time for on our previous excursion. We didn’t plan a
big one though, as having already purchased 3 bottles of grappa and 4
bottles of wine, we simply didn’t have the luggage capacity to buy
any more. I figured then that we could visit two cantinas, buying a
bottle of wine at one and a bottle of grappa at the other – you
don’t have to, but you kind of would prefer to be able to buy
something everywhere you visit to make the effort the proprietor has
put in worthwhile.

Our
first stop,LeChiusure,
turned out to be something of an unpleasant experience. Let’s make
no bones about it. It was quite hard to find, with roadworks blocking
the route the satnav wanted to take, and when we got there we ended
up going through the wrong entrance, which meant strolling across
some beautiful grounds that really ought to have been reserved for
the family. They didn’t seem to mind, but we did feel we were
imposing on their privacy.

In
the showroom Allessandro Luzzago was already concluding business with
a couple of visitors from the UK – visitors who were casually
buying a couple of cases of his wine. Through this, a couple of
sample bottles were already open, though one of the customers
recommended we try the Portese.
We requested to do so, and the proprietor opened a new bottle for us.
Mrs Cake decided to buy that, and the annoyance on the proprietor’s
face at opening a new sample bottle to secure a purchase of only one
bottle was unmistakable. He quickly tried to make out it didn’t
matter, but we knew that really it did. Really, I could understand
this, but everywhere else we went the proprietors opened fresh
bottles at the drop of a hat, and were delighted no matter how little
we wanted to buy. I suppose it’s possible that most other cantinas
can put these open bottles to good use later the same day, while
perhaps Le Chiusure doesn’t have that kind of set up. Nevertheless,
it left a bad taste in our mouths and left us apprehensive about
continuing our adventure.

Was
the wine any good? Well, as you know, I don’t tend to comment on
wine. It seemed fine to me.

We
had been late leaving the apartment that day – a result of keeping
our clocks on UK time, to facilitate little Sylvie’s naps, remember
- so when this first visit was concluded it was nearing lunch time,
and all the cantinas would be closing. We decided to head into the
nearby town of San Felice del Benaco and grab some lunch, then see
how we felt after that.

After
that we felt like maybe calling at Turina,
which we’d spotted was on the main road through the industrial
state at Manerba. It can be tough to pad out two hours though, even
with lunch in southern mainland Europe, so we arrived at the site a
good 20 minutes before it was due to open. The car park was bathed in
direct sunlight, and little Sylvie was uncomfortable and upset, so we
ended up parking under the only shade, which was actually in the
middle of the road around the building.

It
wasn’t a very happy time, but eventually someone arrived to open
up, and they actually let me in early. He seemed confused by my
presence, and my clumsy attempts at conversation got me nowhere, so I
ended up just purchasing a bottle of Invecchiata,
the aged grappa for 14 euros (I think). Finally we could head back to
the apartment, and spend the rest of the afternoon drinking and
relaxing by the pool.

Final
Days

Brexit
did cast a gloomy air over proceedings (and did pretty much ruin our
holiday – and indeed, much of my waking life since. I wonder if
anyone else is as worried about all this as I am?), but that didn’t
stop us trying to get our party on for the last couple of days. The
Manerba beers were dwindling, and it was time to revisit the
supermarket and see what I could add to my distinct beers for the
week.

Bad Brewer, but, presumably they mean bad in a good way

What
I picked up this time were three varieties of Bad Brewer,
an Italian brand described as street
food beers
– so they’re small bottles, and funkily branded – presumably
intended for drinking with fancy burgers.

Now,
as I said a little earlier, all this happened a while ago now, and I
can’t remember much detail. Untappd tells me though that the Pale
Ale scored
3.5/5 and the California
Common and
Amber
Ale both
scored 3/5.

Finally
I picked up a super strength Dutch lager, whose cans had caught my
eye – all shiny and gold, like. Even more importantly, this 8.6
Gold by Bavaria
Brouwerij
was 6.5% ABV. But it only scored 2/5.

Duty
Free

Finally
it was time to head home and find out what life in a fractured and
divided Britain was now like. I’d been reading articles about
increases in racism and hate crime, Corbyn’s shadow cabinet had
resigned – which at first seemed likea good thing – and it all
seemed like a great big shitstorm. I actually wished I’d been home
the whole time, so that I could at least see things from my own
perspective. The distance of a bit of a continent was distorting.

First
though, there was the prospect of Duty Free. I’m sorry to say, that
once we sorted out the damage to the rental car and got through
security and all that, I had no enthusiasm for extra purchases left
in me. I also felt a little rushed and didn’t have the luxury of
time to adequately evaluate what was on offer. I did have a quick
peruse, but all the grappa looked to be around twice the price it
would have been in the supermarket. I should perhaps have looked at
vermouth or even an Italian chocolate liqueur I’d heard about, but
like I say, my mind just wasn’t in the right place.

We
went home. Life, for us at least, was pretty much the same as it had
been when we left, it was just hard to feel upbeat about the future.
I think I’m used to that feeling now. Shit happens, we’ll deal
with it. It doesn’t necessarily stop you feeling low, but you deal
with it, don’t you?

There
will be no trip back to Italy in 2017 unfortunately, and probably no
trip to France either – which was something we’d been planning –
because redecorating the hallway and carpeting the upstairs bedrooms
is looking likely to cost £2k. But that’s life, isn’t it?
There’s always next year, and this year’s going to be good
anyway. Little Sylvie continues to develop, and there are loads of
beers and spirits to try. Let’s get on it.

And
if you come back next week, I’ll be looking at the grappas I picked
up that week in a little more detail.

I’d
been intending to buy a new bottle of tequila at the start of the
month, but I’m at that stage now where, if I want something of
decent quality that I haven’t had before, I have to spend somewhere
around £30. Given various economic factors, I couldn’t really be
sure that was something I could afford to do, so instead I put thirty
quid aside and told myself I’d get it later in the month if it
looked like I was going to be (slightly more than) ok.

The
month slowly passed, and I thought, goo on then, and added a
bottle to my basket. I realised though, that I was heading off on
holiday in a few days, so I might not be around to take delivery. I
didn’t want to be worrying about it while I was away, so I decided
to put the purchase off once again. I had ended up spending £15on a single bottle of beer anyway, that hadn’t been planned, so
I could look at this as a £15 saving.

Then
Mrs Cake said she was going to Tesco to stock up on food for a
barbeque, and did I want anything. I had a quick look at Tesco
Online, and found they were selling Wild Turkey 81 for £15, and told
Mrs Cake to get that if they had it.

They
did, but look at this; it ain’t Wild Turkey 81 no mo’. It’s
still 40.5%, but now it’s just “Wild Turkey”. This new bottle
actually makes it look like a shit supermarket own brand blended
scotch, but that neck and stopper lend it a slight touch of class, I
suppose.

Fifteen
quid is good value though, and a price I’m happy to pay to see how
the basic expression compares with the premium Kentucky Spiritthat I was drinking earlier in the year.

Now,
I opened this at poker night which, by rights, all bourbon should be
opened at, but it led to nearly half the bottle being consumed on
that one occasion. And this is good bourbon – it isn’t
complicated, but it is tasty, replete with all you expect from the
genre; sweet and playful. As you’d imagine, it isn’t as
full-bodied or rich as the Kentucky Spirit, but it’s
possible that it’s all the more enjoyable for that. There’s no
messing around with water and, given the comparative prices, you can
just enjoy this for what it is, instead of having to ask whether it
was worth the extra outlay. I almost feel like I was getting cash
back. I’m a little disappointed that I’m half a bottle down
already, but then I just remember that it was only £15. I doubt I’ll
ever get it this cheap again, but you’ve got to take it when you
can get it.

Wild
Turkey’s merits shouldn’t be understood purely in terms of value
though. That would be to sell it short, because it’s very good. Not
as luxurious as all-time bourbon favourite, Woodford ReserveDouble Oaked, but seriously enjoyable. Kentucky Spirit though,
nearly made my 2016 Spirits of the Year list. Mind you, look at the
price of that. I can’t say it’s that much better
than this standard Wild Turkey – though it is better.

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

I’ve
been comparing the two major budget supermarkets on their quality of
spirits for some time now, and I just realised that (once again,
thanks to The Distinct Beers Challenge) I’ve enough
experience to compare them on the quality of their beers, too. Both
outlets have exclusive brands, and both get in their fair share of
guest and seasonal beers, so if that isn’t a reason to keep
drinking, I don’t know what is.

Now,
I’ve been shopping at Aldi for a lot longer than I’ve been
visiting Lidl, and while at first I thought I would I just need to
make a couple more visits to Lidl before we’re on level terms
beerwise, it hasn’t turned out that way. Lidl’s turnover of beers
has tailed off while Aldi’s has positively gone through the roof –
first with a selection of 5 or 6 German beers for Oktoberfest, and
then a whole new range of 10 or 11 British beers… for what seems
like no reason at all! Hooray for Aldi. Sadly it makes it difficult
to compare the two brands beer for beer right up to the present day.
At first I thought that maybe I could draw a line under an equal
number of beers and then do a part 2 after Lidl have added a few
more. In all fairness, that doesn’t sound very interesting to me,
and it makes it hard to draw any overall conclusions. This no doubt
will be a topic I return to frequently, but I think it will be better
all round if we just take more of an overview and see where that gets
us.

first ever beer shop at Lidl

Anyway,
I intend to compare the beers then, on four categories:

Exclusive
brands – the cheap made for Aldi/Lidl stuff you find,
including the low alcohol and shit cans. This can be a tricky one
because some of the exclusive brands are trying very hard not to
look like exclusive dirt market brands. A lot of them are made by
actual brands anyway as well, so I’m just going to have to make a
number of decisions and stick to them. If you don’t agree with any
of my decisions, you have all of the comments section to stick your
oar in.

British
guests – the kind of large bottled ales you get, that mostly seem
to be around 4%. And anything else British of course!

Seasonal
gimmicks – those beers they get in at Christmas (usually with
cartoony labels) or Halloween (usually pumpkin flavoured) or around
Burns Night (Scottish).

The
first task was to comb through all my previous Untappd check-ins
and try to remember which beers I’d bought from either of these two
dirt market giants. Next, a bit of classification and analysis, and
finally, piece together some kind of narrative – perhaps with a bit
more tasting inbetween.

So
I’ve done that analysis now and I’m going to have to find a place
to start. How about…

Exclusive
brands

Yes,
so these are the ones that you’re only going to find at the
supermarket in question. Even these can be split into a number of
categories, so it’s not destined to be simple. For one thing I’ve
identified no less than 23 exclusive brands (probably even
more since I wrote that sentence) between the two supermarkets in the
two and a half years since I started logging on Untappd.

looks like shit Heineken

First
off you have the shit Euro-lagers. At Aldi you’ve got Sainte
Etienne (2.5/5) which is generally in cans, and the slightly more
special bottled Sainte Etienne Premium (which I’ve actually scored
lower than the standard one; 2/5), while at Lidl you’ve got
Excelsior (3.9%, 1/5) in cans, and in bottles, Perlenbacher Premium
Pils (4.9%, 2.5/5). The canned ones are packaged to look like shit
beer, the Sainte Etienne Premium to look like shit bottled beer, and
the Perlenbacher to look like Heineken – and hence, like shit
bottled beer. You can see from the scores that none of them are
anything to write a blog about. In their favour is that they are
cheaper than comparably shit branded beers. I don’t want to talk
about these particular products too much just now, because I have
another post in the pipeline where I directly compare own brand
supermarket beers. So most of the content is going to be in that one.
For now you can see there’s little to choose between the
supermarkets in this category.

But
what of the other exclusive brands I alluded to?

Well,
Aldi go a step further with their exclusive foreign ales, branching
out into a German weissbier, Rheinbacher (5%, 2.5/5) and what
looks like a Spanish style lager, Carista (4.6%, 2.5/5). Neither are
anything to get excited about.

And
that brings us to the many exclusive British beers. So far I’ve
counted 9 at Aldi and 7 at Lidl. All, with the exception of Aldi’s
Golden Crown (4.1%, 2.5/5) are identifiably brewed by
reputable British breweries. Interestingly, many of the breweries
have made beer for both supermarkets, so that adds an extra dimension
to our investigation.

Lidl
seemed to be the first of the two supermarkets to offer its own
“craft” beer range. I put “craft” in speech marks like that
because… well they aren’t exactly premium. They come in standard
500ml bottles with cheap but consistent labels. And by ‘cheap’ I
mean the paper quality is very poor. To give a small brewery
aesthetic, they are allocated numbers – No. 1, No.2 etc, in
addition to their various quirky names. All are in reality produced
by reputable large scale breweries, though Lidl appear to have
attempted pull the wool over our eyes by pretending they are brewed
by a company called Hatherwood Craft Beer Company. Here’s a
brief summary of how I’ve scored them and what I’ve thought of
them as far as I can remember.

The
Golden Goose (3.8%, 3/5) by Wychwood, famously the fathers of
Hobgoblin. This one’s a golden ale, and neither better nor
worse than standard fare.

The
Green Gecko IPA (5%, 3/5) by Marston’s. A good ABV for your small
financial outlay on this one. The score of 3 out of 5 of course
denotes that it does the job but is nothing special.

The
Amber Adder (4.3%, 3/5) is also by Marston’s and also receives and
average 3 out of 5. It is described as a “red ale”, so I’m not
quite sure why it’s called “amber”. Amber is orangey – right?

The
Ruby Rooster (a brown ale – there seems to be some confusion
over colours among these beers; 3.8%, 2.5/5) is by Ringwood Brewery
and scores below average. A score of 2.5 represents not
particularly nice, but nothing terrible about it.

The
Purple Panther (5%, 4/5) is the jewel in the “Hatherwood” crown
(strong, cheap and good), and is a porter.

The
Winter Warmer (5.5%, 1/5) could be classed as a seasonal beer, but I
think its exclusive status supercedes that. It is brewed by
Hogs Back Brewery and as you can see from the score, is awful. Part
of that has to be down to the fact that seasonal spiced beers are not
my thing at all, but only a very small part. Don’t be fooled into
thinking this isn’t awful.

Finally
we have Gnarly Fox (4.5%, 3/5), a lager brewed by Wychwood. I always
buy the Wychwood beers because they are nicely branded and
identifiable – in that when you see one, if you’ve paid the
slightest bit of attention, you can remember whether you’ve already
tried it or not. Sadly, as I’ve tried more of them, it appears
Hobgoblin is the only one of any worth. The brewery’s two Lidl
offerings are nothing to get excited about either.

Now,
Aldi have clearly taken note of this Hatherwood ploy and
decided to get in with their own professionally brewed, exclusive
range. The labels are of the same cheap paper (though the designs are
far more interesting), but they haven’t tried to fool you or I (the
great British beer buying public) into thinking a patsy brewery has
made them all. Some of them are credited to Harper’s Brewing
Company, while the rest make no bones about the actual breweries
that are responsible for them. However, and again they differ from
Lidl a bit here, they all state “brewed exclusively for
Aldi” on the label. These all hit the shelves at the same time, so
it was quite a cheap month of at home drinking for me (excepting
releases of Cloudwater’s DIPA versions 8 and 9), and made for an
exciting day at the Eden Square shopping complex. Let’s have a bit
of a rundown. I’ll start with the large bottles and finish with the
smaller ones, because yes, I neglected to mention that Aldi have gone
one better than their rival and offer a range of 330ml bottles as
well as 500ml ones. I entered some comments about some of these on
Untappd, which I’ll include for you here.

hit the jackpot at Aldi one weekend

North
Bridge Brown Ale (4.7%, 3/5) – a so-so attempt at Newcy Brown,
brewed by Marston’s. That’s right, it’s not a patch on the real
thing, but it’s not a bad cheap approximation. It’s half a point
better than Lidl’s comparable Ruby Rooster.

Golden
Crown (4.1%, 2.5/5). As you can well imagine, this is an attempt at a
pretty standard golden ale. That’s never really been my genre, so
the 2.5/5 tells you Aldi have pretty much hit the target. No specific
brewer has been identified as creating this one. On Untappd I said,
this new aldi range looks the part, but so far they aren’t quite
up to snuff, which isn’t a turn of phrase I’d normally use,
but there you go.

Medusa
(5%, 3.5/5). Apparently brewed by Marston’s, this one, though it is
labeled “Harper’s Breweing Co.” As I say, I think this is the
equivalent of Lidl’s Hatherwood. Anyway, this is a red ale,
and one of the better scorers. I wasn’t able to use the Untappd
barcode scanner, and it was very hard to find it on the app.

Amber
Stone (4.4%, 3/5). I haven’t been able to find out who the brewer
is for this one. It’s credited to “Harper’s” and is
apparently “contract brewed”. I got a 2 year anniversary badge on
Untappd for logging this one, which seemed odd because I’d actually
joined Untappd two and a half years previously.

Wild
Bill’s IPA (5%, 3/5). Another collaboration with Marston’s. At
the time I stated, Pleasant at first, but soon changing to a burnt
taste as the bitterness sets in. Still one of the best of these new
Aldi offerings.

Land
of Liberty (5%, 3/5). The first of the small bottles is billed as an
American IPA and is made by Sadlers. I said, a bit fusty on entry,
then pleasant citrus followed by too much bitterness.

All
4 One (4.5%, 3.5/5). A collaboration with Hogs Back Brewery, this one
is an amber lager. No comments, but it scores pretty well.

Sunny
Dayz (3.8%, 2/5). Late November is an odd time to release a summer
themed golden ale, but that’s what Aldi have done with this second
Hogs Back collaboration. I said, something not quite right –
like, a bit stale about this one.

Red
Rye IPA (4.7%, 4/5) – a good one from Aldi – and
Twickenham Fine Ales. Indeed, the joint top scorer in this category
along with Lidl’s Purple Panther. I think it would be
worthwhile to buy 8 of these and keep them in stock for when I need
to buy beers but can’t find any I want in the local supermarkets.
If only the bottle was a little bigger…

So
what can we conclude in the exclusive British beers category? Well,
for one thing there’s nothing particularly outstanding, but at
least there is a good selection out there – and if you’re not
fussy about quality you certainly can’t argue with the price. Some
of them really are comparable to what I would classify as
sub-standard established beers. In terms of comparison between the
supermarkets, let’s just go on average scores.

Aldi
racked up 10 beers, scoring 31.25. That’s an average of 3.125 per
beer, which isn’t bad. I’m not going to go out of my way to prove
it, but I reckon that’s probably a better average than all the
beers on the shelves at a standard supermarket. Mind you, that would
be a purely subjective conclusion.

Lidl
on the other hand racked up only 7 beers, scoring 19.5 points. I need
my calculator for this one; it’s an average of 2.786. That’s a
little off the pace, and gives Aldi the edge.

British
guests

Time
now to move on to the British Guests category. In this one I’ll be
judging the two retailers on the quality of branded beer that they
get in from time to time. In terms of quantity it’s a little
one-sided at the moment, with Aldi having 16 examples and Lidl only
8. Nevertheless, I think it’s enough to go on.

On
first glance you’re seeing a lot of the same brewers from the
respective exclusive ranges – Brains, Marston’s, Wychwood – but
you also get the likes of Sadlers (the dirt market king – being
available as they are also in B&M Bargains and Quality Save),
Shepherd Neame, Robinson’s and Joseph Holt. You also get one or two
weird ones like Williams Brothers’ Fraoch Heather Ale at
Aldi.

I
don’t want to go into too much detail here, as you will be familiar
with some of these beers anyway, and otherwise I haven’t got much
specific to say about them anyway. Instead I’ll give you a list of
beers by retailer and their scores out of 5.

Aldi
first –

Two
Tribes by Everards Brewery, 3.5/5

Castle
by Arundel Brewery, 4/5

Sadler’s
Hop Bomb, 4/5

Sadler’s
Mellow Yellow, 2/5

The
Rev James Rye by Brains, 3.5/5

Strongarm
Ruby Red Ale by Camerons, 2/5

Wells
Bombardier Glorious English, 4/5

Brains
SA, 2.5/5

McEwan’s
Export, 2.5/5

Wainwright
Golden Ale by Marston’s, 3.5/5

Hobgoblin,
4/5

Hobgoblin
Gold, 3/5

Fraoch
Heather Ale by Williams Brothers, 3.5/5

Golden
Bolt by Box Steam Brewery, 3.75/5

A-hop-alypse
Now by Camerons, 3.5/5

Maple
Gold by Joseph Holt, 3/5

That’s
a total score of 52.25 to be divided by 16, leaving an average of
3.266. Again, not bad.

Lidl British guests

Lidl
then –

Hobby
Horse by Rhymney Brewey, 3/5

British euro-style lager

Butcombe
Gold, 2/5

Tapping
the Admiral by Shepherd Neame, 4/5

Ginger
Beard by Wychwood, 1/5

Unicorn
Black by Robinson’s 3/5

Brains
SA Gold, 3.5/5

Korev
by St Austell Brewery, 3/5

Summer
Sizzler by Shepherd Neame, 1.5/5

I
think we can see it doesn’t look great for Lidl at this point.
Let’s see, it’s a total of 21 to be divided by 8, leaving a
paltry 2.625.

That’s
interesting though. It shows that Aldi is better on both British
exclusive and British guest categories, but it also shows that Aldi’s
guest are marginally better than its exclusives while Lidl’s
exclusives are marginally better than its guests. I think that’s
quite useful. Take note of that.

Foreign
guests

I’m
afraid there isn’t much to compare in this category so far, since
Aldi are quite prolific in their delvings into the European market,
while the few times I’ve visited Lidl have only yielded two foreign
guests. Those two were Blanche de Namur, a Belgian wheat beer
and Bornem Blond, a Belgian blonde ale. They both looked the
part, but sadly they didn’t taste it, scoring 2 and 1.5 out of 5
respectively.

Aldi
are giants in this field though. I mentioned earlier in the post how
they got in 5 or 6 authentic German beers for Oktoberfest, which
routinely scored between 3.5 and 4 out of 5. From time to time they
also have beers from French brewer, Les Brasseurs de Gayant.
La Goudale Biere de Abbage (3.75/5)and La Goudale Witt
(4/5) are good examples, while the gluten free Grain d’Orge Bio
Sans Gluten was fucking awful (1/5).

Then
there was alternative Spanish lager Ambar Especial. There’s
a funny story about this one. An acquaintance was in Zaragoza and
posted a picture of a local beer that he favoured over San Miguel and
Cruzcampo and the like. He mentioned how it wasn’t available in the
UK yet. It was funny because that very day I’d seen it in our local
Aldi, and I think it was only 99p per bottle. Next time I went in I
took a picture for him, and later, on his return home, he went
straight out and bought what looked to be the stock for one whole
store. Anyway, I only scored it 3.5, which isn’t bad.

Seasonal
gimmicks

Ok,
final section now before I start wrapping this up. It’s a fairly
inconclusive one though, to be honest. I’ve only had the pleasure
of trying one seasonal gimmick from Lidl so far – Shepherd Neame’s
Burns Ale which I scored 2.5/5. Aldi have been getting all
sorts in over the years though – Christmas themed ales like
Reigndeer from Sadlers (3/5), Redbreast by Jennings (3/5), Yule Love
it! By Thwaites (3.5/5), Rocking Rudolph by Greene King (3/5) and
Wychwood’s Bah Humbug (3/5). They also embrace Burns Night
(Blackwolf Brewery’s Rabbie Burns, 3.5/5) and Halloween (Wychwood’s
Dunkel Fester).

Anyway,
these kind of beers aren’t really my kind of thing. I only buy them
because it’s more or less a guaranteed distinct beer to add to my
log. So I’m not going to compare across this genre – for now
anyway.

Conclusions

So
which of the two budget supermarkets should you go to to fulfil your
beer needs? I think it’s plain to see that Aldi is the choice for
me. If Lidl is a lot more convenient for you, it has offerings that
are worth a try, but Lidl consistently has the greater range, and it
changes fairly regularly. Not only that, but the most important
thing, the quality, is just that bit better. I’m not consistently
buying by beers from Aldi just at the moment (do I do pick up
anything distinct that comes in), but there’s certainly a case for
doing so in preference to the mainstream supermarkets. Sure, the
mainstream supermarkets have the range and they have the offers, but
Aldi has great prices and solid alternatives that if you’re like
me, you might find a little less depressing than the choices you have
to make at Tesco or Sainsburys (or Asda or Morrison’s. You guys
don’t escape my ire either).

Over
to you now. Please tell me about your favourite supermarket beers in
the comments, and join me next week when I’ll be talking about
something else, which I think will be a revisit of the standard Wild
Turkey Kentucky Bourbon, but which, as ever, is subject to change if
I haven’t written enough of it. See you then.

Definitions

What happens when you zone out after having had a cheeky lunchtime pint.

Alcothusiast:

Not an alcoholic, someone who appreciates booze.

Anxiety, The:

The uneasy feeling that accompanies any noteworthy hangover.

Booze Buffet Mentality:

The propensity people have to go nuts whenever there's a free bar.

Booze Porn:Photos of alcohol.

Bread Chest:Not booze related, but this term describes the indigestion you get from eating too many bread products too quickly. Just putting it out there...

Crawler's Block:The inability to decide where to go next during a pub crawl - often resulting in crawl stagnation and someone saying, "shall we just have another one here?"

Crawl Stagnation:The result of failing to plan a pub crawl sufficiently - lack of a route, theme or over-familiarity with nearby pubs can all be contributing factors.

Excess Induced Alcohol Aversion:An intolerance for a drink caused (usually) by one occasion of overindulgence.

The Family:My whisky collection.

MOMA:

Moment of Maximum Appreciation. Every bottle has one. It's the time you drink it where you enjoy it most.

Old Man Pub:Traditional British pub, renowned for being quiet, cosy and frequented by old men. Much favoured by people who like a nice chat while they drink.Psychological Drinks Cabinet:Collective term relating to the kinds of alcoholic drinks a person has need for.Road Beers:

Cans of beer that you take with you when you go out, to consume on the way.

The 3 Types of Rum:White, gold and dark. Together they form the base of many a great cocktail.

About Me

Neil Cake is interested in all types of booze, but is by no means an authority or expert. Most of the time he's just trying to be funny, but he is learning, and enjoys sharing his adventures and what he learns on the Drink it How You Like it blog.
Thengyuverrymuuuuuch.